European politics

Spanish politics

Hostage to Catalonia

IF Spain has become a noisy place, with protest against austerity now a daily event in some cities, the soccer match on October 7th between arch-rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid threatens to be noisier still. Both sides will be roaring for goals from the likes of Barcelona's Leo Messi or Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. But many fans at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium will also holler for independence for their Catalan homeland. "It will be very, very loud," warned one senior local businessman.

FC Barcelona is fanning the separatist flame. It will hand out red and gold coloured placards to the 98,000 fans at the match so they can ring the pitch in a giant Catalan national senyera flag. Shouts for independence will be timed to coincide with the seventeenth minute and fourteenth second of each half – symbolically matching the year, 1714, when Catalans lost key rights.

The match also presents football-loving separatists with a quandary that neatly sums up many of the obstacles to Catalan independence. Many view FC Barcelona as a national Catalan team manqué even if Mr Messi is from Argentina and many other players are not Catalan. But should an independent Catalonia have its own soccer league? If so, should Barcelona, used to playing mighty Real Madrid and other well-financed, talented teams, join that new league? That would force the club to play poorly-financed local tiddlers and, probably, lose its position as a world soccer power (it has won the all-important European Champions League competition three times in the last seven seasons). The bi-annual clásico against Real Madrid with its reported 400m strong global TV audience would become history.

Sandro Rosell, the club chairman, may have joined the September 11th march in Barcelona that shot Catalan independence to the forefront of national debate, but he is clear about the club's future. It must continue to play in the Spanish league, he says, even if Catalonia becomes independent. But would the Spanish league allow it to stay? Barcelona's football club is not the only business that would have to make tough decisions if independence came. Others would also have to choose their new "home" market. Would it be Catalonia's relatively well-off 7.5m residents? Or would they rather make their home among the remaining, not-as-rich 40m in Spain?

Barcelona proudly declares itself to be the capital of the world's Spanish-speaking publishing business. José Manuel Lara, chairman of the giant Planeta publishing house, which each year hands out one of the world's wealthiest literary prize, worth €601,000 ($783,000), has already said his company would go. It would be absurd to be based in a country that had a different language, Catalan, as its official tongue. Foreign investors already face a similar dilemma. Should they invest in Catalonia?

They do not know either whether they should invest in Spain, if a Catalan break-off is a threat to the country's stability. Spanish executives and bankers already report that Catalonia is the first thing they are asked about when they travel abroad. Regional premier Artur Mas has called a snap election on November 25th. Many see this as a plebiscite on independence, though Mr Mas may try to water that down. Either way, the election obliges Catalonia’s often ambiguous politicians, especially Mr Mas's nationalist Convergence and Union coalition, to define themselves on the independence issue. Anything less than absolute clarity risks adding to the uncertainty and pushing investors even further away.

First of all, you need an ENEMY. This is the most important step. You need to convince the people that all their problems are due to that enemy's vile actions and hate towards you and not due to your own incompetence and corruption.

You need to control the PRESS, RADIO and especially TELEVISION. You fill all posts in public broadcasting with acolytes and you subsidise heavily all non-publicly owned newspapers and radios.

You need to control the EDUCATION SYSTEM. You rewrite the history books and you replace the teaching staff in the public sector with people who have been ideologically vetted and impose rigid controls on private schools. You take over youth groups and cultural organisations by subsidising those that toe the party line.

You need a LIE. It must be simple to say but very difficult to refute without a lot of complicated explanations. 'Spain robs us' is a particularly good example and replaces the 'Catalonia has been oppressed for 300 years' that almost nobody believes in any more.

You need TIME. Thirty years or so of repeating every day through your controlled Press and Education system the nationalist mantra that everything bad is due to the hateful policies persued by the Enemy should be enough.

Finally, you need to stage a massive DEMONSTRATION in order to whip up popular enthusiasm. You cannot go to war or declare independence without this essential step. You use public TV/Radio to generate the necessary zeal (for example, catalan TV spent 317 hours in August and September in promoting the 11th Sept. demonstration. You arrange and subsidise coaches and trains to bring in as many people as possible and your official crowd estimates should be at least three times the real figure.

Will this enable you to create a Nation State?

No, but it does allow you to call a snap election and have almost everybody forget that your handling of the economy has been a DISASTER, that your region is BANKRUPT, your public education system the second worst in the UE27 and that a large number of your party leaders are indicted for CORRUPTION.

If the Catalans want to go, let them go. Sweden's and Norway's "union" dissolved peacefully (after 368,392 Norwegian voted for the dissolution, and 184 against in a plebiscite) much to both countries advantage. Czech and Slovakia also dissolved peacefully to the benefit of both.

Catalonia has exactly the same right to be an independent state as has my home county of Glamorgan.

A lot of hot air has been wasted with the claim that the United Nations gives every nation or people the right to independence but nowhere does the UN endorse the right for a small region to secede from the host nation. The UN declaration is explicitly limited to the right of colonies to self-determination. And in no way does the Catalonian region count as a colony. In fact, no region in the world has the same level of autonomous government as has Catalonia.

Being a Barcelonese living in Washington DC and being against independence, I find misleading to say that "catalonia is much more dependent on Spain than the other way around".

Like it or not, the Catalan economy is much more export-driven than the average Spanish economy: a third of total Spanish exports comes from Catalonia, although the Catalan economy represents just 20% of the total. Previous Spanish boycotts to Catalan products (i.e. Catalan champagne in mid-2000s) proven useless: Catalan firms just redirected exports towards external markets. Now, Freixenet champagne can be found in every supermarket in the USA, at a very competitive price.

Of course Catalonia will lose a lot in the event of separation (hence my reluctance to be pro-independence, in addition to my sense that we share at least 500 years of joint history and we can find an institutional solution to our disagreements besides divorce) but Catalan firms have the experience and contacts to redirect exports abroad. That's a fact.

The interesting thing is that one can extrapolate the question to a similar scenario: what if GERMANY leaves the Eurozone? Something similar would happen.

Catalan has been consistently promoted by nationalists as a way to emphasize (or even create) a sense of national identity. As night follows day, the next step is to decide that Spanish speakers are not really Catalan. This process is not unique. It creates a nationalist and cultural divide between "them" and "us" which can then be exploited to enhance nationalist claims. The linguistic fence is presented as a means of protecting the culture from outside influences but does it fence out the foreigners or fence in the citizens?

Such an evolution is bad for the Catalonia's true culture as well as for its economy. This is dangerous stuff.

Catalonia has never been an independent country. In 1714 there was the war of Spanish Succession, where Philip of Anjou (French) and Charles of Habsburg (German) disputed the Spanish crown after the death of Charles second without lineage separated. The Catalans celebrate the Independence September 11 each, but they really are celebrating the triumph of Charles of Habsburg in the city of Barcelona. The catalonians pay tribute to Casanova, faithful defender spanish crown, and transform it into nationalist.
Please do not cooperate IN SEPARATION OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY,it is not the best moment. thank you very much and greetings from BARCELONA (SPAIN)

First of all, the Spanish league is a private business that lives from Barcelona vs Madrid matches. Most of the other teams are broken and it is well known that soon the soccer buble will burst and only 4 or 5 teams will be able to survive. Would spanish league reject their revenue-regerator Barça once Catalonia is independent? Obviously no, but, anyway, who cares when people still wants to be independent? Soccer is a secondary topics at best.
Second Planeta's chairman will not leave Catalonia if independent. Why? Spanish will be the second official language of catalonia, planeta is extemely weak because of his huge debt, he would be crushed by its competitors that have been trying for years to hire his people in Barcelona and grow their busineses there. Why is he saying this then? He is trying to prevent the independence to happen. He is very well know for what he thinks about it, we all remember how his father and founder of Planeta arrived to Barcelona as a soldier of the dictatorship Franco and through favours from the regime he created his empire. No surprises then.

Sir, the "conquest of America" was an enterprise of the Kingdom of Castile, and subjects of the Kingdom of Aragon (the other counterpart in the dual monarchy of the Catholic kings) were forbidden from traveling, colonizing or trading with the Americas. This is why Catalan, Aragonese, Valencian, or Balearic are not spoken in the Americas but are spoken in the island of Sardinia (where the aragonese established their Mediterranean sea-faring empire earlier).

All Catalonia is asking is to let its future be decided freely exercising the right of self determination and democracy. Catalonia is a european country that deserves to hold the same rights as any other european country, and within Spain the message is clear, we have to be spanish and disappear. We have no choice but to regain our statehood.

While this articles asks the right questions it still errs in some stereotyping when it portrays "rich" catalonia vs "poor" Spain. The reality is that catalan prosperity, which was built in late 19th century behind huge tariff walls and on the back of a captive spanish market, has unraveled since Spain's inclusion in the free trade area of the EU and its subsequent opening to world markets. The result is that now catalonia is barely above the spanish average for GDP per capita and well behind the more competitive regions of Madrid and the basque provinces.

As for the question whether fc barcelona would lose its status, I would venture to say that once catalonia becomes independent, international regulations (in this case FIFA and UEFA) will prevent it to to impose its will on its neighbours. Therefore fc barcelona would have to play in the smaller catalan league with its reduced market and face the same prospect of drastic reductions in its revenues and subsequent loss of profitability and power.

In fact, catalan independence would even more liberating for Spain as catalonia is much more dependent on Spain than the other way around.

Again, your observations are coloured by the propaganda that you have received here in Barcelona.

Only yesterday it was revealed that in the latest year for which full data is available Catalonia received in Govenment spending 4,016 million euros MORE than was paid in to central coffers by catalan taxpayers.

This gives the LIE to the standard catalan battlecry of the last few years that have consistently said that the Catalans have 'been robbed' of 16,000 million more euros than they have received.

This situation is very worrying, nationalism is emerging at a time of crisis. This nationalism is excused in past wars that cost us so much to overcome. Why are we talking about dictatorships which fortunately ended? The Spanish people are free to speak the language they want. Furthermore we can choose whether to study in Catalan or in Spanish, Catalan culture is not in danger. in my case, i get some classes in spanish and others in catalonian without any problem. The spanish people love Catalonian culture, it is our culture. I'm Spanish and I want my children to learn the catalonian language and culture.
People are so burned by the crisis and the system, so they take refuge in nationalism. It is worrying, as it can be an obstacle to the recovery of this country, rich in culture which we all want to keep.
Some politicians blame the Spanish government to excuse the mismanagement of some autonomy. Neither independence nor dissolution of autonomy. The people have to move to demand good governance both at a regional and state levels. We have long been silent while watching mismanagement. Most had the fridge full.

What a depressing dialogue in these comments!
"My nation has been oppressed by yours!"
"Not really, and when it has been oppressed, you deserved it!"
"My language is vital to the survival of my Nation!"
"My language is more universal so you should adopt it"
"Anyway, I'm right and you're wrong!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"

Maybe it all goes back to the historians who write from a specific, nationalist, perspective. They then tend to determine the educational agenda, which results in generations convinced of their shared victimhood. If only historians would write more comprehensive explanations of why certain events happened and that decisions were made by individuals and elites rather than the general population. Encourage mutual understanding and sympathy instead of emphasizing differences and feelings of victimhood. Then the need for nationalism would die on the vine.

(I'm not just talking about Catalonia/Catalunya. I live in Quebec, where the exact same process is playing out. It's unnecessary and depressing, driven by a sad minority of extremists, not by the regional "vulture". Look also at Belgium, Ireland, the Basques, and so on.)

As a foreigner living in Barcelona, I see several issues here in Spain. Spain has always been very provincial in mentality as each region of Spain wants to make sure they take care of themselves. In which country can you name a high speed train link between the capital and a minor city like Felipe Gonzalez did for Sevilla in 1992 when a high speed link would have been more appropriate for say Madrid - Barcelona or Bilbao.

I understand the gripes here that for every euro contributed to state coffers, Catalunya only gets back 40 cents. They want to get as much bang for their buck but my concern for independence lies at what cost ?

With soaring rates for interest repayments, now is not the right time for independence unless someone discovers oil reserves off the Catalan coast that will leapfrog this 7 million community further into the current millenium.

It is very sad to see that some idiots they prefer issues as football to prevail over the fundamental rights of people.
Interferences, criticisms or undermining the universal right of any nation --let it be Catalonia or whichever-- to decide alone on self determination is just unacceptable and undemocratic. Catalans must freely and democratically decide what they want to be, and with who they want to stay.
Fascism is over, and Spaniards should know it (and they should also clean their country packed of the heirs of fascism, partially converted to pseudo-democracy)

Catalan nationalism is inclusive. It has been for over 500 years when it has embraced individuals that immigrated into Catalonia. Its main tool of integration has been the Catalan language and Catalan traditions.

On the other hand Spain has never admitted the different national realities within its own borders (Catalans, Basques and Gallegos mainly) and rather tried to annihilated these differences, for instance by forbidding teaching Catalan at several points of its recent history (the most recent a 50 year stretch until 1970s). Similar policies were enacted in its overseas territories (don't forget that South America speaks mainly Spanish).

Case in point , Catalan is a co-official language in Spain, yet there are no Catalan Language Faculties outside of Catalonia (except for the Valencian and Balearic Autonomous Comunities where they also speak dialectal varieties of Catalan).

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

@Cornish expat: Catalans will not send away or discriminate Spaniards that live in Catalonia that not speak the Catalan language. Many of them have found home away from home and have become part of our own culture and celebrate their own festivities (Feria de Abril, etc) with total freedom. And many Catalans participate from those events as well. Why wouldn't they? These events are now part of the Catalan culture as well.